Their Excellencies the Ambassadors of the European Union
in the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam

Your Excellencies,

I am informed that you will hold a meeting in Hanoi between Ambassadors of the European Union and the Vietnamese Government to discuss issues including human rights and religious freedom in Viet Nam. I would therefore like to take this opportunity to extend to you, your people and your governments the warmest regards of Buddhists in Viet Nam, and convey to you the concerns of all Buddhists who, because they speak out in the name of their conscience and human dignity, are being mercilessly silenced by an intolerant political regime.

We appreciate your strong attachment to the universality of fundamental and inalienable human rights - rights that unfortunately are not recognized here - and warmly welcome the efforts you have made at every possible opportunity, as Ambassadors to our country, to underscore the universal value of human rights. Despite all the restrictions imposed upon us, we Buddhists strive our utmost, and shall never cease to strive, to make these universal rights the foundation-stone of all international relations and the basis of all interchange between communities, peoples and nations. Civilized society shall never allow any Government, whatsoever its ideology or political creed, to derogate from universal human rights and isolate their people behind an iron curtain on the pretext of "non-interference" into their nation's internal affairs.

We would like draw your attention to an issue which concerns us deeply, and which you have almost certainly encountered in Viet Nam - the utilization of religion for political ends. When religion becomes part of the State's political apparatus, the State wields absolute authority. This is particularly dangerous if the religion in question is a majority religion which exercises a profound spiritual influence over its people. Throughout history, in East and West alike, tragic examples of the sufferings wreaked by such absolute autocracy abound. For these reasons, Vietnamese Buddhists adamantly refuse to accept that their community becomes a member of the Viet Nam Fatherland Front which is a political, mass organization controlled by the Communist Party of Viet Nam. The Unified Buddhist Church of Viet Nam has consistently opposed the Party's policy of forcibly mobilizing Buddhist monks and nuns to join political organizations, obliging them to run for office in the National Assembly or to exercise political positions in People's Committees at national and local levels. "Separation between religion and the State" has been a leitmotif of Vietnamese Buddhism from its very origins, and it remains a guiding principle of the Unified Buddhist Church of Viet Nam's actions today. This principle was underscored in the Resolution unanimously adopted by the Eighth Congress of the Unified Buddhist Church of Viet Nam held in California, USA on May 14th to 16th 1999, organized on the directives of the Church's supreme leadership in Viet Nam.

Your Excellencies,

As Ambassadors of member countries of the European Union, one of the world's most flourishing industrial communities, who are posted in one of the world's poorest countries, Viet Nam, you have firsthand experience of our people's hardships and a keen knowledge of the causes and effects of the poverty they endure today. All poor countries need economic co-operation and aid from developed nations in order to survive and raise their basic living standards. But today, the problem of co-operation and aid places human conscience on the horns of a dilemma. For the rate of development between the vast majority of desperately poor people and a minority of privileged, political elite is vastly disproportionate. In Viet Nam today, wealth disparity is rocketing. This can only be avoided if economic and technical aid and co-operation is founded on guarantees of universally-recognized human rights, democracy and freedom. Demanding these guarantees cannot be considered as an interference into a country's internal affairs. Without such basic safeguards, regimes will use economic aid to shore up their authoritarian powers, reinforce policies of intolerance and discrimination, suppress freedom of thought, conscience and expression. I totally agree with the view of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who said in a recent interview with the French newspaper Le Monde : "It is no longer acceptable to see Governments trample on the rights of their citizens on the pretext of national sovereignty".

Vietnamese Buddhists at home and abroad are deeply grateful for the invaluable aid your countries have given our people. But we urge you, along with the whole community of nations, to increase your vigilance on violations of human rights in Viet Nam. Stronger measures are necessary to ensure that universal human rights are truly implemented, and all attempts to abuse or suppress these rights should be roundly condemned.

Specifically concerning the Vietnamese Government's treatment of the UN Special Rapporteur Mr Abdelfattah Amor during his recent visit to Viet Nam, we appeal to the European Union to take firm action to ensure that Viet Nam respects its binding obligation to comply with UN procedures and rules, especially with the mandates of UN Special Rapporteurs. In his report to the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva this year, Mr Amor called on Viet Nam to lift all inadmissible restrictions on religious freedom and release all religious prisoners. The Unified Buddhist Church of Viet Nam wholly endorses Mr Amor's recommendations, and calls upon the European Union to press Viet Nam to implement them fully.

We enclose for your information the Resolution adopted by the Unified Buddhist Church of Viet Nam's Eighth Congress on 14th-16th May 1999, approved by the Institute of the Sangha of the Unified Buddhist Church of Viet Nam. This Resolution resumes the aims, aspirations and objectives of the Unified Buddhist Church of Viet Nam, and reaffirms the commitment to human rights, tolerance and freedom which we have publicly advocated over several decades.

One of the main points in this Resolution is the reestablishment of the right to existence of the Unified Buddhist Church of Viet Nam. Although the Government has never passed an act of legislation prohibiting the Unified Buddhist Church of Viet Nam de jure, it has banned our activities de facto since 1982. We firmly believe that the Unified Buddhist Church of Viet Nam, with its tradition of over 20 centuries, its following of 80% of the population, and its philosophy based on compassion, tolerance and understanding, could contribute greatly towards healing the ills of Vietnamese society today. If the Unified Buddhist Church of Viet Nam were entitled to reestablish the vast network of hospitals, schools, universities, orphanages, social and cultural centres confiscated by the authorities after 1975, it could seriously attack the scourges of poverty, illiteracy, drug addiction, prostitution, child abuse and the many serious problems facing our society today.

We also enclose a sample list of prisoners of conscience, including clergy and followers from different religious denominations detained by the Vietnamese government simply for following the non-violent dictates of their conscience or pursuing their monastic vocations. This preliminary list was compiled by our overseas information service, the International Buddhist Information Bureau in Paris and completed, reviewed and approved by the Institute for the Propagation of the Dharma (Vien Hoa Dao). We hope you will transmit this list of detainees to the Vietnamese Government at your coming meeting and press for their release.

We are particularly alarmed about the situation of our Supreme Patriarch, the Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang, who figures on this list. Venerable Thich Huyen Quang, now 82 years old, has been detained under internal exile without charge in Quang Ngai Province since 1982. He is critically ill, but Security Police maintain him under total isolation, refusing to let him receive visits from his personal doctor or accept medicine from his disciples. In March 1999, when I visited him in Quang Ngai Province to discuss preparations for the Eighth Congress, Security Police arrested us both and detained us for questioning for several hours. I have now been informed that, because of my visit, and especially since the Eighth UBCV Congress was held in the USA in May 1999, Security Police have subjected Venerable Thich Huyen Quang to an even harsher regime. His health has seriously deteriorated because of this ill-treatment, and he is in desperate need of medical care. We wholeheartedly urge you to raise his case with the Vietnamese authorities in all urgency at your coming meeting, and urge them to release Thich Huyen Quang and allow him to return to his former residence in Saigon.

Please accept, Your Excellencies, the sincere and warm sentiments of Buddhist in Viet Nam to the people and governments of your countries.

Yours sincerely,

Head of the Institute for the Propagation of Dharma
(Signature)
Sramana THICH QUANG DO